Social Networking Phishing Attacks
The internet is a global communication device where people all around the world can meet and talk about pretty much anything. Unfortunately, not everyone on the internet is friendly and honest. There are lots of people who are using social networking websites as a way to steal personal information, especially through phishing, so all users of such sites need to be vigilant to protect themselves.
Phishing is where criminals try to get hold of your personal details by misleading you. This is widespread on the internet and you normally receive emails instructing you to enter your personal information to protect your account.
Social networks are becoming a very popular source of information for these phishers. They can easily use all of the information which is contained in your social networking account to steal your identity.
Why Are Social Networking Sites Popular For Phishers?
Not many people trust the internet and most people are already wise to phishing attacks on the internet. However, on social networking sites people often let their guard down. People are just starting to understand how dangerous it can be to download files from Internet sites, even trusted social networking sites.
Yet, most people feel safe using social networking accounts because they believe that only their friends have access. This is not true because anyone can actually access the personal information on your Face Book and MySpace profiles very easily.
Targeted Attacks
Most phishing attacks using email only work by sending the same message to thousands of people. They have no idea about the people they are sending the messages to. This means that the success is limited. It will only work if the people who receive the message are the types of people that the messages are aimed at.
Thanks to social networking sites it's much easier to customize the attacks so that they have a much better chance of succeeding. It's easy for criminals to use all of the information in your social networking profile to get a much better understanding of who you are.
There's no need to dumpster dive for criminals to find out information about you. It's very easy for them to search through the profile on your social networking site.
Phishing Attacks
You must be on the lookout for phishing attacks on social networking sites. It's not just emails which are used for these attacks anymore. If you ever receive emails requesting the information of your social networking account then you must be very cautious.
You also need to be very careful who you add as a friend on your face book account because these people will have access to your personal information very easily.
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